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Warning: Politically interested citizens of advanced age could get a strong déjà-vu when reading the election manifesto of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen.
Gasoline prices up sharply, relieve citizens elsewhere?
We've had that before.
Correct: It was almost a quarter of a century ago that the Federal Congress of Delegates of the Greens in Magdeburg voted on a plan for “ecological tax reform” that a party executive named Jürgen Trittin had presented at the time.
The key points almost sparked a popular uprising in 1998: the price of petrol rose to 5 D-Marks per liter!
The fact that the Greens, in return, wanted to abolish the vehicle tax and reduce social security contributions was completely lost in the wave of outrage.
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Today, the historic “five-mark resolution” appears again in a structurally similar, albeit moderate, form in the Greens' program for the federal election on September 26th.
Now it says: "We want to bring forward the increase in the CO2 price to 60 euros by 2023."
What does that mean?
The climate tax on fuel introduced at the beginning of the year is currently 25 euros per tonne of CO2.
According to the Greens' plans, this tax is to be more than doubled within two years.
After the increases planned so far by the federal government, a CO2 price of 55 euros should not actually be levied until 2025.
Ten cents more per liter
Consequence: If the Green election program is implemented, ceteris paribus we will be at 1.61 euros per liter of petrol and 1.43 per liter of diesel in the year after next.
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A price premium of ten or eleven cents per liter doesn't seem so dramatic.
However, the current “Fuel Emissions Trading Act” already provides for annual increases.
So the 60 euros from the Greens in 2023 would only be a start.
As early as 2025, the CO2 price could be 80 euros per ton, which would make fuel another five cents a liter more expensive.
Driving with fossil fuels should become increasingly unattractive by 2030 and no cars with internal combustion engines will be permitted at all.
The Green election program also provides for this.
For the price increase of fossil fuels, the citizen should be relieved elsewhere.
With the income from the CO2 pricing of the fuel, the EEG surcharge is to be lowered and the electricity bill is to be reduced.
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At the same time, there should be cash for each individual.
"We are giving back all additional CO2 revenues to the people through energy money, and that it is divided fairly per capita," says the Greens' election manifesto.
"This is how you can earn money with climate protection and there is a social balance in the system."
The effect of both compensatory measures could be significant, as a first, unchecked beer mat bill suggests: A CO2 price of 60 euros per ton could bring an additional 18 billion euros into the federal government's coffers in 2023.
If you follow the old suggestion of the think tank “Agora Energiewende” and distribute “energy money” of 100 euros per capita per year to the population, there are still around 10 billion euros in CO2 income that could be used to lower the EEG surcharge .
The EEG surcharge, which is currently 6.5 cents per kilowatt hour, could possibly be reduced to below 3.5 cents with such a sum.
Further price effects of the European emissions trading and only minor intervention by the federal government could foreseeably reduce the EEG surcharge to zero.
This would relieve low-income households in particular and also make expensive cost compensation for energy-intensive industry superfluous.
Compensation is late
The Greens are planning further measures so that the CO2 pricing in traffic and heating oil does not just reach the citizens as a burden.
Of course, there is a risk that the costs will be incurred immediately, but the compensation will not arrive until much later, if at all.
Basically, the party wants to reduce car traffic, instead strengthen buses and trains and, above all, significantly expand the infrastructure for bicycle traffic.
In the country, "on-call buses" are to become standard, and the railways are to be expanded to such an extent that domestic German flights are no longer necessary.
The financial requirements are enormous, and the implementation of such an infrastructure program is time-consuming, especially in Germany.
To speed things up, the Greens program even provides for a scrapping bonus for private cars.
However, one that the industry will not like: a household that permanently deregisters its car should "receive a mobility bonus for one year for the use of environmentally friendly means of transport," says the election program.
The members of the household could then use the bonus, for example, to buy the “mobile pass” invented by the Greens.
It should "link the offers of 120 transport and tariff associations in Germany and integrate sharing and ride pooling services (..)".
The aim is to make the switch to bicycles, buses and trains possible for everyone and to support them financially.
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The party wants to redistribute the space in the city - at the expense of the automobile.
“Traffic-calmed or car-free city centers and districts” are part of this, speed limits as a rule in the entire locality and the possibility for cities to allow parking “only in marked places”.
"Fewer cars in the city mean more space for us humans," writes the party.
However, it is clear to the transport politicians that citizens in rural areas usually cannot do without their cars.
There they put "first and foremost on the opportunities of the drive turnaround".
The Greens see the combination of e-car, solar system on the roof, electricity storage in the basement and a wallbox in the garage as a future-proof solution.
More green electricity needed
From 2030, according to the will of the Greens, “only new emission-free cars will be registered”.
Although the phrase is formulated in a technology-free manner, the party also knows what this means for the industry: On the basis of a corresponding resolution, the automotive industry can "reliably focus its development work on electromobility".
The petroleum industry is already warning that this could put all those who will still have to drive one of 50 million combustion engines in 2030 at a disadvantage.
The prerequisite for e-mobility, of course: a rapid, massive expansion of green electricity production.
“Our goal is a million new solar roofs in the next four years,” says the election program.
In addition, up to 6,000 megawatts of wind power, i.e. 1,500 to 2,000 wind turbines per year, are to be installed.
Fromm promises the Greens "to minimize the conflict with nature and species protection, to protect residents".
How the squaring of the circle should succeed is not specified in the election program.
The petroleum industry must reduce its CO2 emissions
The federal government wants to increase the share of renewable energies in transport.
The cabinet decided on Wednesday to amend the law, which will gradually reduce greenhouse gas emissions from petrol in the coming years.
Source: WELT / David Schafbuch
Stricter European CO2 fleet limits would also ensure more speed when switching to e-cars.
They are targeting the Greens as well as the end of diesel subsidies and a bonus-malus system in the vehicle tax that is based on the emissions of the vehicle.
Finally, the tax company car privilege - which was previously important for the sale of large luxury cars in Germany - is to be reformed ecologically.